


Regrowth

by Velasa



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Domestic, F/M, The content is T but they swear a lot, postgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23150932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Velasa/pseuds/Velasa
Summary: In which various things are discussed over breakfast.
Relationships: Kaetus/Sloane Kelly
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Spectre Requisitions 2020





	Regrowth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wafflesrock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wafflesrock/gifts).



> My Spectre Requisitions entry for Wafflesrock! I want to thank Acequeenking for her betaing and encouragement. You are the best hon ^__^

  
  
"I just assumed you were dead." Sloane Kelly said without lifting her eyes from her datapad.

At the counter behind her Kaetus laughed. "No. Felt like it a lot of the time, but Aunt Lavinia wasn't there to shout at me so I had to still be alive." 

"I thought she was the only one who liked you?" 

"She did. That's why she would have been the only one who showed up at my judgement." Kaetus replied as he continued tending the dual color coded frying pans. Something wonderful and meaty wafted through the air but Sloane kept her eyes on the import numbers from Eos. "I was one of the lucky ones from Natanus. I sleep fine at night and everything."

"Have I ever told you that your afterlife makes no fucking sense?" In the six months their colonies had been trading Bradley seemed to be a man of his word, but she was still going to check everything to make sure Kadara wasn't getting fucked over. She hadn't stayed alive this long by just trusting people.

"Several times."

While she couldn't make out the actual words in his subvocals she had a remarkably easy time guessing what he meant from the hum alone. Right now he was perplexed more than annoyed, as neither of them believed much of anything but they always seemed to come back to conversations like these. Might as well let it drop or he'd ask if this was about how she had nearly died in that cave. She had more numbers to crunch anyway.

Sloane finally looked up when a plate was placed in front of her. Adhi sausage, draz eggs, a small bowl of phyrril grains with red Kadaran salt. Across the table Kaetus had a bowl that smelled like fish protein and a pepper spice she knew had been cobbled together to imitate one from an old turian outworld colony. He put it on every damn thing. She always made sure to include it in the trade lists.

An amicable silence fell over the kitchen as they ate. It was a fairly new pleasure to be able to sit and cook and enjoy something fresh. With Meridian secured the vaults were making wide scale farming in native soil possible as opposed to much more limited indoor hydroponics facilities. More volume, more food, less living on nutrient paste. And with the truce with the Nexus and without the Collective hanging over her head they actually had the _time_ to sit and eat like this.

The bowl of phyrril was her last thing left and she drew a fork through it thoughtfully. It was one of the biggest exports from Eos, a scrub grain that was a decent enough substitute for rice if you soaked it to get the bitterness out. They actually had enough potable water to do that now...

"Never thought I would have to know this much about agriculture. It's a pain in the ass but you wouldn't believe how important it is when you're running a colony that's not at war for once." 

"For you herbivores of course it is." Kaetus said with what was clearly a smirk is his subvocals. She didn't know how a sound had a look but this one did.

"We're omnivores you twit."

"Wouldn't be able to tell with how much foliage you eat."

Now she knew he was full of shit, seeing as he had literally just made her breakfast, but she also knew he was teasing her about what they _had_ been forced to eat for so long and she was honestly in too much of a good mood to fight about it. The sausage had been particularly good this time.

They talked shop for a while after that: which colony they should approach with a trade agreement next, what local resources they should invest in and what wasn't worth the time and effort it took. Who could be trusted to let old grudges lie and who they needed to keep eyes on. The disappearance of the kett, continuing problems with raiders, water quality, soil ph, a whole load of things they knew intimately and others they were still learning. It had always been an atrocious amount of work running an outpost but as they entered what seemed suspiciously like peacetime it only got more complicated. 

After another pause in the conversation while she had reviewed messages from her other lieutenants something crossed Sloane's mind and she looked back up with curiosity "How did you learn to cook levo anyway? You knew before we ever met."

"Worked on a freighter with a mixed crew for a while. After the cook got stabbed for cheating at cards I took over the job."

Putting the datapad down finally she rested her head on a hand and looked up with some amusement. "I don't think you've actually told me this one before." 

Kaetus shrugged. "Not much to say. We hauled palladium out to Taetrus, shot things we were paid to along the way. Mostly turians on board, couple asari, a bonded pair of hanar pilots. A volus who did all the demo work. Decently behaved group of people as long as you didn't fuck with their money. It was practically legitimate work until the fucking terrorists blew up Vallum* and our contacts. "

It was a surprise to hear him talk casually about Taetrus. Home was normally a touchy subject for her partner, but the bitterness she was used to hearing had become more of an antipathy than anything else. Like it didn't matter as much. And it struck her right then that it... didn't. All that mattered now was what they had here in Heleus, with Kadara and with each other.

And anyway, if he hadn't left the ass end of turian colony space in 2170 they never would have met two years later.

Kaetus had paused and was looking at her curiously. To keep him from asking what she was thinking and to lighten the mood she spoke up again. "So did you stab the cook specifically to get their job or was it actually about the cards?"

That did it- Kaetus laughed hard and low, mandibles trembling up and down a touch with the force of it. "I _wanted_ to stab him but Shallia beat me to it. The rest of the crew volunteered me to take the job over."

"Were you a better cook?"

He nodded, mandibles still flared wide in a smile. "Of course I was. Karus didn't know to make anything that didn't come out of a pouch."

Sloane let it sit on a pause before coming back with a tease "And it was better enough that they never got around to stabbing you too?"

There it was, that wicked gleam in his eyes and that beautiful low voice she loved him for as he leaned forward conspiratorially on the table between them. "I was _also_ much better at cheating at cards."

  
  


End.  
3/14/2020 11:00 PM

**Author's Note:**

> *For various reasons in my fic continuity the Vallum blast occurred in 2170.


End file.
